Warped
by IngridSarah
Summary: Originally an attempt to write a serious squelphie [SelphieSquall], this evolved instead into my explanation of Ultimecia's motivation for compressing time.
1. I

SUMMARY/WARNING: This story, in its initial form begun sometime last year, was originally   
my attempt to write a serious Squelphie. It evolved instead into my explication of Ultimecia's   
motivation in the game. While elements of Squall/Selphie remain, it is no longer a Squelphie   
in any real sense of the word (Consider this fair warning, Squelphie fans!). The original   
summary went something like this:   
  
Remember when Quistis warned everybody about getting stuck in a time warp at the end of   
the game? Well here it is, Squelphie style. What if only two had survived, and both their   
names started with S? Some people are just incorrigibly demented, and I happen to be one of   
them. The continuity is probably messed up. The facts are probably screwed up. The names   
have been changed to protect my right to misspell. Just read it. I apologize in advance.  
  
~~~   
"Warped," part one   
~~~   
  
Selphie stumbled, her heels riding the loose rocks across the empty plain. The light above her   
was eerie, no longer the darkness she had experienced after the battle, but a sick kind of grey   
instead, like the sky on a rainy day.   
  
She felt as unnatural as her surroundings, her skin hanging on her bones strangely, her   
muscles aching and stuck to the skin. Her brain throbbed with dizziness so that she was   
beginning to doubt her memory again. It couldn't have been the GFs. She couldn't remember   
using one...   
  
Unless she was dreaming, almost everyone was dead, dissolved into this strange thing called   
time. She remembered the way she had felt during the battle after they'd thought Ultimecia   
was gone, the white light she'd turned into, like snow moving through water, and everything   
went away...so slowly. Selphie had been standing next to Squall, her fingertips buzzing with   
leftover magic, a gentle blue color that made limbs screaming with pain look pretty.   
  
Ultimecia had combusted...or so they had thought, and then she was back, but not at all the   
way they had expected. There was no flourish or bang, but she was calm and peaceful as she   
came, as if she was confident enough of her own inevitable victory that she needed nothing to   
scare them further. They were already afraid.   
  
Time shall compress, all existence denied.   
  
Selphie had been afraid when she'd heard muscles like her own collapse against the invisible   
floor, when Ultimecia had told Griever to "make them bleed..." The thing that had picked up   
Irvine's body looked deceptively like an angel. Selphie knew better—there were no angels   
here. Zell and Quistis had gone down together silently, and Rinoa had screamed...   
  
...all existence denied...   
  
Then it was the two of them, Squall and Selphie, and she cast cure spells on them until she   
thought her body might shatter. Ultimecia had been talking to them, saying things that didn't   
make sense for her to know...who was this...thing? It certainly was no woman, with it's   
faceless body like colored eggshells...  
  
Was this what happened to sorceresses? Was this what was going...what would have   
happened to Rinoa? But it didn't matter. Rinoa was dead and soon they would be too. Selphie   
didn't have time to cure them again. It wouldn't have helped anyway, so she struck out her   
Shinobu with the only desire she had left—to inflict pain on someone else. Squall was kneeling   
with his sword at his side when the Sorceress broke up into flecks of light, and then Selphie   
could remember nothing.   
  
They had succeeded...sucSeeDed...Selphie walked on into the emptiness, telling herself that   
they had succeeded. It was only a matter of time before success would secede to death,   
before she collapsed, knowing nothing of her success but pain.   
  
She walked along with eyes low and head lower, so when she finally stumbled upon a leg, she   
skidded to the ground. When she reached out to break her fall, the sharp rocks grated against   
her palms.   
  
"Shit!" Her head whipped around to see what had tripped her. "Squall!" His body lay   
peacefully against the rocks, his skin and clothes dark from the explosion. All existence   
denied... But he had not been dissolved by time... She leapt toward him, shaking him as   
frantically as she could. His shoulders were cold. All of him was cold.   
  
She dropped him when she winced, the itch across her shoulderblades becoming too much to   
bear. She touched it and her back seemed to catch on fire. Her eyes snapped shut as if to   
contain the sensation and then opened again to reveal her own hand soaked with blood. Her   
brain flooded and she collapsed, face first into the body.   
  
~~~   
  
Selphie stretched her hands above her head lazily, feeling slightly choked as she came to. She   
was delightfully warm. Then she opened her eyes suddenly. She had been dying just a few   
moments ago, hadn't she?   
  
But now she was in her dorm room. The warm feeling had to do with Balamb Garden's slightly   
overzealous heating system as well as her own Trabian-knit blankets. The choked feeling was   
because for some reason, she was wearing her SeeD uniform in bed, and the high collar was   
cutting off her oxygen supply even more than usual. She had the distinct impression that she   
was supposed to be somewhere, when she heard three knocks at the door.   
  
"Uh...come in?" She offered, unsure, loosening the clasp at her throat.   
  
Squall walked in casually, looking very much alive, and dressed up in his SeeD uniform too,   
though his hair was as haphazardly coifed as ever. He looked at her strangely, probably   
because she was looking fairly strange herself.   
  
"You rang?" he asked with almost half a grin tugging at his mouth. What the hell was going   
on?   
  
"I did?"   
  
He looked petulant. "Don't tell me you're feeling guilty now! It was your idea and now you're   
gonna to blame it on me, and of course everyone's gonna believe you because you never do   
anything wrong..."   
  
"What are you talking about?"   
  
"You really don't remember?" He looked surprised, and then worried. "Were you using your GF   
today?"   
  
"No. Maybe. I- don't remember." Never a good sign. She rubbed her head and cringed,   
revealing the wear of the battle with Ultimecia in her mind, even if her body couldn't feel it.   
  
Squall was beside her in an instant, one heavy arm slung over her shoulders. "Maybe you   
should go see Dr. Kadowaki." His eyes searched her face in confusion. She hadn't meant to   
give him the hairy eyeball, but he was acting so weird! The Squall she knew wouldn't have   
come into her room making sarcastic jokes, let alone expressing concern for her like a...well,   
like a normal human being. There had to be some reason for this...   
  
"What was my idea? Why do I have the feeling that we're missing something important right   
now?" she asked, trying to look comfortable in whatever dream or reality this was.   
  
"I'm going to kill you if you're faking this," he answered playfully, and then grew serious when   
she didn't smile back, "We're supposed to be at the dance right now, Selph! I can't believe you   
don't remember—you planned the thing!"   
  
She clapped her hand to her head. The SeeD graduation ball...so they were in the past. But   
this wasn't the past as she knew it. In the past she remembered, she'd been on time to the   
graduation ball and she'd certainly stayed straight through to the end. She remembered   
talking to committee members about the upcoming musical performance she'd planned, and   
Squall... Squall had been dancing...well, sort of dancing, with Rinoa.   
  
"Why are we here?"   
  
"I don't believe this. You were the one who suggested we cut out early. They're already three   
hours into it by now!"   
  
"I suggested we skip it? I wouldn't..."   
  
"Selph," She stopped talking when Squall put a finger to her lips. She studied his face. He still   
looked the same, his bangs falling over his icy blue eyes, the scar on his forehead etched   
carefully between them, but there was something very different about the way he was looking   
at her, about the way he was touching her face... His hand moved to her back, and before she   
knew what was happening, he had pulled her toward him and he was kissing her.   
  
Her eyes shot open, and she gave him a quick reflexive shove. They broke apart and she   
stared at him with her mouth open. "Squall!" She demanded, too surprised to be outraged.   
  
"What?" He stood up looking almost as freaked out as she was.   
  
"What's going on?" She didn't know what else to say.   
  
"What do you mean? What's the matter with you? You were using your GF, weren't you?" He   
took her hand and pulled her to her feet, "You need to see Dr. Kadowaki." The sense of   
urgency in his voice had grown exponentially.   
  
"Hold on, Squall. Just um...give me a minute, ok?" He looked confused so she tried to calm   
him by taking his hand in both of hers. "I want to see if I can remember..."   
  
He watched her warily.   
  
"Please, Squall." She looked into his eyes and noticed an unusual softness in them. His   
eyelashes fell against his cheeks.   
  
"Aright," he agreed, "but...I still want you to see the doctor eventually..."   
  
"Sure thing." She smiled at him. "Maybe I'd better sit down." She took a spot at the foot of   
her bed and Squall sat down next to her. "I remember planning the dance, of course," she   
reassured him. He nodded his head encouragingly. "And I remember showing up there, and   
everything was a disaster so I had to fix all the decorations, and then you showed up, and you   
were sulking in the corner because you didn't want to come in the first place...and then...I was   
talking to Nida about the junior committee officers..."   
  
"And then?" Squall prompted her, when she didn't say anything more.   
  
She scratched her head. "I can't remember anything else."   
  
"You came over to make fun of me for standing in the corner."   
  
"I did? But what about Rinoa?"   
  
"Who?" Selphie blinked. That was the missing piece. Rinoa.   
  
"What happened after that, Squall?" He was getting ready to take her to the infirmary again,   
she could tell. He seemed to consider for a moment and then he sighed and leaned back   
against the wall.   
  
"You made me dance with you, don't you remember?" She shook her head.   
  
"What else?"   
  
"We went outside because Seifer was making fun of us, and then..." He paused and looked   
down at the floor shyly. "...we kissed...and then...you said we should sneak out early if I   
wasn't having any fun, but we should go out separately so nobody caught us...and we could   
meet in front of your room..." He still wouldn't look her in the eyes. "Selphie...if this is your   
way of blowing me off..."   
  
"No!" He looked startled when his eyes finally connected with hers. "I mean I really don't   
remember, Squall. I'm not trying to...blow you off." Her mind worked furiously. Something   
had happened to or with Rinoa so that she wasn't here...there...the night of the dance, and   
that meant that Squall had never danced with her...and Lord, she and Squall had kissed, and   
he was looking at her like she had just kicked him or something...   
  
So this is what would have happened had Rinoa never appeared at the dance. How odd! As far   
as she knew, in the past that she remembered, Squall had never given her a second look, and   
she'd just always assumed that without Rinoa, he would have never reached out to anyone   
else...that no one else would have reached out to him...   
  
He stood up. "I'm gonna go now. You should go see the d—"   
  
Without thinking she reclaimed his hand and stood up in front of him before he could turn   
around. He was so tall, she thought, never having noticed it before. He looked like a different   
person in his uniform...it suited his serious disposition so well and she felt a pang of nostalgia   
because even though she was here right now, it was as though she was looking back at the   
past, but from a new angle that she'd never before considered...   
  
"Squall."   
  
He bent his head toward her, inquiring.   
  
She had always been curious...   
  
It took him a long, sweet moment to respond to her lips, and when he did the surprise was   
breathtaking. He kissed her back innocently, as though he was searching for something that   
he could only find within her... She leaned against him and drew her arms about his waist,   
trying to pull him closer all the while...   
  
He touched her back.   
  
Her body exploded in pain.   
  
A voice. Her own? No. Someone she should remember...   
  
Rinoa is not simply dead, idiot...Rinoa dissolved into time...it's as though she never existed at   
all...   
  
It was a voice that sounded strangely like the sorceress. But that was impossible. She was   
dead, wasn't she? But the voice was still there, insistent as it had ever been.   
  
Time shall compress, all existence denied.   
  
~~~   
END, part 1. 


	2. II

AN: Some people are just incorrigibly demented, and I happen to be one of them. The   
continuity is probably messed up. The facts are probably screwed up. The names have been   
changed to protect my right to misspell. Just read it. I apologize in advance.   
  
~~~   
"Warped," part two   
~~~   
  
She woke up to a groan, not clear, upon first hearing it, whether it was her own. She had   
returned to reality, if this limbo could be called that, and her back was sporting a nasty injury   
that no amount of contortion would allow her to see.   
  
She raised herself on broken hands, away from his heartbeat....heartbeat? She lifted a finger   
to his mouth and felt warm air. He was alive! She would have danced if she wasn't in so much   
pain.   
  
"Squall." instead of shaking him she smoothed the lines of his t-shirt, the messy dark marks   
on his face, and continued to stroke his cheek absently, long after the smudge was gone.   
"Wake up," she begged, as if had willed his unconsciousness. It wasn't that she was afraid...or   
maybe it was that she was afraid—afraid of her hallucinations, afraid that she might really go   
insane if she didn't talk to someone else soon...   
  
She thought about her dream, wondering if it had been just that and nothing more. The little   
details were beginning to haunt her. They'd left the dance early? Why had Squall mentioned   
Seifer's name? It was as though he'd been at the party as well...but he'd *failed* the SeeD   
test...in her reality. If it was just a dream, why was it so damn detailed, anyway?   
  
It was then that Squall opened his eyes, and she noticed at once how cloudy they were, how   
removed from the world they were in. And then she watched the pain swirl in, the name   
already on his lips...   
  
"Rinoa?" A question before reality hit. He had seen her die.   
  
Selphie watched him blankly as he sat up, grimacing. His face grew darker than she had ever   
seen it. He was embarrassed by the utterance of a name...by remembering that *she* was   
dead a second too late. She might have said something, but what was there to say? She   
turned away to give him time, winding her arms together...   
  
"Selphie? Hyne!" She turned her head, and he was behind her, his eyes wide as he stared at   
her back. She tried to use his voice as a mirror to see how bad it really was. "What   
happened?" He touched her shoulder and a chill traveled through her.   
  
"I don't—I don't remember." She was using that phrase far too frequently for comfort these   
days.   
  
He frowned.   
  
"Why your back? She was in front of us."   
  
She didn't know what to say. It had never occurred to her why she was hurt so much more   
than Squall seemed to be, when they had both been fighting together.   
  
"How did you find me?"   
  
"I was walking...I don't know how I got here before that...it seemed like I was always   
walking...and then I ran into you."   
  
"There's no way off."   
  
"I know. I've been around it three times."   
  
"I'm sorry." He shook his head. She was going to ask him what he was sorry about, when he   
looked at her softly, suddenly reminding her of the dream. She was glad he couldn't see her   
face as he took her shoulder for balance and raised a hand just over the skin of her back, "I   
should have done this sooner. Did your cure blow away?" The magic was hot, and his voice   
was gentle, soothing her like a bath. She eased backwards mindlessly, leaning into him with   
relaxed muscles, buzzing with heat.   
  
"Selphie?"   
  
On some level, she had heard him call, but she was already slipping away, and by the time   
she opened her mouth to answer, he was gone.   
  
~~~   
  
She gathered herself together, hollow body aching with the first, unimaginable pain. It was   
always dark at the beginning, when she radiated out of nothing. Ultimecia. One.   
  
Not one. Ultimecia, Edea, Rinoa, Ultimecia.   
  
Once one, but not anymore. *Should have* been one.   
  
Ellone.   
  
Ellone, Edea, Rinoa, Ellone.   
  
Adel.   
  
How many times could she do this, and remember? It was too much for her body; her mind.   
There were too many of them; too many things that came between Ultimecia and Ultimecia,   
the way it should have been.   
  
But there was again hope. Faint and shimmering, it beckoned to her from the center of   
darkness, inside.   
  
The white light devoured her face slowly, eating her brain and dripping down her throat, first   
slow and then faster. The world came together inside as she dissolved. She could not scream   
or hear or see, but she could feel the light radiating against her carved-out jaw.   
  
That was when she knew it hadn't worked.   
  
Selphie.   
  
Ultimecia, Edea, Rinoa, *Selphie.*   
  
The light roared against what was left of her body, and she exploded into the dark.   
  
Ultimecia, Selphie, Ultimecia.   
  
It would not be so hard anymore, with only one of them between to destroy.   
  
She would again be Ultimecia.   
  
She would again be one.   
  
~~~   
END, 2. 


	3. III

AN: Some people are just incorrigibly demented, and I happen to be one of them. The   
continuity is probably messed up. The facts are probably screwed up. The names have been   
changed to protect my right to misspell. Just read it. I apologize in advance.   
  
~~~   
"Warped," part three   
~~~   
  
"Selphie? Are you awake?"   
  
The whispered words, so close to her ear, were enough to draw her out of the fog at light   
speed. She jerked forward, hitting things along the way.   
  
"I'll take that as a 'yes.'" Squall was rubbing the back of his neck in the dark.   
  
Holy crap. She was in bed, and Squall was in bed. A bed. Singular.   
  
"Um...sorry?"   
  
"You could apologize," he offered, shrugging, "Or you could continue kicking my ass.   
Whichever." His eyes flashed at her in the dark.   
  
Clothes, she noted. They had clothes on...to a certain extent. Her eyes were too busy   
interpreting the darkness to note much of anything else.   
  
"I'm sorry," she said more firmly, trying to take in her surroundings for the first time. This   
wasn't Balamb Garden.   
  
"Hey...Are you okay?" She swallowed as he wrapped his arms around her from behind,   
sounding and feeling so...concerned.. His hands met and folded over her stomach, pulling her   
close. "You weren't having those dreams again, were you?" His lips were on her throat as he   
waited for her answer, distracting...   
  
She squirmed against him, imagining that there were worse ways to spend time. Hyne, he was   
beautiful, even now, his skin dark against the white sheets, his lips soft against her shoulder.   
One of her hands reached out behind her to clutch at his hair...but the pursuit was fruitless   
when it was as fine as his, and her fingers ran through it easily like water...   
  
"Selphie?"   
  
"Dreams? No." No dreams but this. She'd forgotten all the others.   
  
And this had to be a dream. She turned around to face him. This was not how he was at all.   
This was not how he had been with Rinoa... This was not how he was in limbo. This was not   
possible.   
  
"You could tell me if you were," he whispered to her collarbone. She wanted to kiss him back,   
to enjoy him before the dream faded into the dark, but before she could touch her lips to his,   
she felt him take a deep breath, as though he were going to say something important. He   
looked down at their legs.   
  
"I would be having them, if I were you."   
  
Oh shit. It was happening again. *It* was intruding on her dreams. Why couldn't it just leave   
her alone? She was dying somewhere else, and this dream was the last chance she had to...   
  
"What do you mean?" She had not wanted to ask. *It* made her ask.   
  
"Not knowing about your powers...about what you can do...it must be horrible." She felt the   
unease spring up inside with alarming speed as he hugged her tightly. Powers? She was not a   
sorceress. Ultimecia was a sorceress. Edea was a sorceress. Rinoa was a...Oh Hyne. *Her   
back.*   
  
*Rinoa's scream.*   
  
Edea's words:   
  
*Before a sorceress can move on peacefully, she must pass her powers...*   
  
Peacefully? No, not peacefully. Pain.   
  
"I *was.*"   
  
"What?"   
  
"I *was* having a dream." She barely knew what she was saying as she spoke, the sound of   
her voice surrounding them, sounding the depths of the night. "We were on an island,   
together alone. I fell asleep and had a dream. When I woke up, everything had changed and I   
couldn't remember when, or how. I didn't know what was *real.*" She swallowed.   
  
"Your memory..." Squall sounded queasy.   
  
"I'm still having it, right now, Squall."   
  
She grabbed at him tightly, hoping that somehow, she wouldn't have to leave. For the second   
she held him, she believed it was true. How could he be under her fingertips, if this wasn't   
real? How could his be prying into her back like...Oh *God,* he was pulling her apart!   
  
"Selphie?"   
  
Not Selphie.   
  
Not even Ultimecia anymore.   
  
One.   
  
~~~   
End, 3. 


	4. IV

AN: Some people are just incorrigibly demented, and I happen to be one of them. The   
continuity is probably messed up. The facts are probably screwed up. The names have been   
changed to protect my right to misspell. Just read it. I apologize in advance.   
  
~~~   
"Warped," part four   
~~~   
  
Breathing the air was like trying to inhale the mud she was lying in. The rain pooled around   
her like blood and she thought she should look for shelter but knew somehow that she   
wouldn't be going anywhere until it was time.   
  
There was only a stone building there off in the mist anyway, an orphanage, and she couldn't   
go there the way she was. They wouldn't recognize her the way she was, with her insides   
seeping out into the earth.   
  
She held on, and holding on was pain, brightness evaporating the dark, rising like a sun inside   
her, carving out a hole for the emptiness to come into being. Oceans roared in her ear and   
clay covered her eye.   
  
It was always dark in the beginning. Until the separation. Until the rift: Dark and Light, Earth   
and Sky, Mud and Ocean.   
  
Time was all that stood between them, paper-thin, transparent, and yet for all her screaming,   
inflexible.   
  
And even as she struggled to hold on, she could feel its aching. It ached like fingers for the   
hand, like arms for the body, severed veins crying red. They had done this to Ultimecia. They   
had done this to Adel and Edea and Rinoa.   
  
They had done this to Hyne.   
  
And they didn't care, tearing at her flesh like dogs who hadn't eaten in days, turning her into   
half of what she had been, leaving her only when she ran, bleeding a trail for them to find her.   
But they hadn't followed. They didn't care what happened as long as they could keep their   
magic, swallow the parts that they had stolen, and she would go away. They were always,   
always only interested in themselves.   
  
She covered her eye with her hand; had nothing to cover her ear with as she waited, listening   
to the rain fall to the ground like broken glass.   
  
~~~   
  
Music and light had flowed from the big doorway as they'd kissed. It was dark outside, and the   
clouds hung down from the sky like solid objects. Hadn't this night been clear?   
  
That had been some time ago, and she realized that if it had seemed like the music had   
stopped when they were together...it had. The light coming from inside had been   
extinguished, and now the shadows stretched slowly away from the stars, the only light left.   
She creased her brow. Hadn't there been clouds?   
  
The power must have gone out.   
  
"Hey Squall, I think this is going to be easier than we thought..." She turned to face an empty   
balcony. He must have already gone inside, and she made her way between the bulbous   
curtains to look. Blue light poured through the windows and sank into the cracks on the floor.   
Where were all the decorations, all the food, all the people? Maybe it was some kind of trick.   
She climbed the stairway to the door.   
  
"Where do you think you're going?"   
  
"Quistis?" The woman was standing in the door impatiently as if she had always been there.   
There was something wrong with her face.   
  
"You're not trying to sneak out, Selphie, are you? The dance isn't over yet."   
  
"I wasn't... What do you mean? There's no one here!"   
  
"I think Zell would disagree with you." Instructor Trepe turned her around to where, against   
the long windows, Zell was ravenously eating something off the empty table.   
  
"But...where did he come from? Zell?" She stepped from the stairs, Quistis forgotten.   
  
"These hotdogs are great, Selphie." Zell barely took the time to look at her before he turned   
back to the table. There was a deep red liquid slipping from the corner of his mouth that might   
have been ketchup, but it dribbled too fast for ketchup, dripping onto his uniform and sinking   
in too easily. He opened his mouth and she could see something sick and wet staring at her   
from inside before he decimated it with his teeth.   
  
"Stop that! What're you doing?"   
  
"Selphie, you've got to leave him alone. He doesn't get much of a chance to eat anymore. Not   
after the accident."   
  
She turned around to face Rinoa. At least that was what the voice sounded like. The white   
dress from the ball blended into the girl's skin, leaving her figure indistinguishable, first clear,   
and then opaque like melted wax. Selphie squinted, trying to make out her face.   
  
"Why do you have to keep interrupting everyone? I was trying to dance with Squall."   
  
She turned to where Rinoa gestured, and sure enough, Squall was standing there silently with   
blank eyes, looking dark as though somebody had died.   
  
"Squall? What's going on? I thought you were supposed to meet me by the..."   
  
With a whir and a choke, the music ground back to life, playing the waltz again. The lights   
came back on suddenly like flashbulbs and Rinoa tapped her foot, impatient. The light made it   
hard to see, and Selphie rubbed her eyes.   
  
"Well? You wanted to dance with him, so do it. We don't have all day, you know. You have   
things to do. Go on!" Rinoa was pushing her towards Squall, who still hadn't moved since   
she'd seen him. She didn't know what was happening, but she didn't want to get close to   
Squall. When she bumped into him, he took her by the waist as if he suddenly knew how to   
dance.   
  
Somewhere along the line, people had appeared, because she was banging into them, getting   
elbowed, the dance floor was so crowded. Somebody's long hair hit her in the face.   
  
"What's wrong with you?" She asked Squall. He wouldn't speak until he looked her directly in   
the eyes, and even then, he wouldn't speak *to* her.   
  
"It's time," he called to Rinoa grimly.   
  
Rinoa took her by the hand, "You have places to be."   
  
They lay her down on the table gently, together, Squall holding her ankles while Rinoa tied   
them tenderly, all the while watching her nervously, as if they knew something that she had   
yet to figure out. Their fingers were cold like rain. She held onto Squall's hand while Rinoa   
twined a cord around her wrist, looking up at him with love. That was it wasn't it? They loved   
her. How could they not? She had given them everything.   
  
It was Rinoa who held the knife, Squall waiting off to the side, stroking the bound flesh until it   
was over. The head was easy—Her face came apart like butter. The red washed into her eyes   
and darkened her vision so that she didn't have to see. She knew it would be easier this way.   
  
But by the time the cool blade reached her chest, she'd realized her mistake. She hadn't given   
them one side—she had given them *a* side.   
  
And they were going to take the side with the heart.   
  
Zell had been waiting at the table for her heart!   
  
She was using her powers like she was using her limbs, Uncoordinated; fire lighting up a skirt   
across the room, freezing some dancers in the other. People should have been screaming, but   
nobody was moving, as if she had frozen them all. Only Squall and Rinoa continued, calmly,   
the steady line down the center of her body growing red and thick.   
  
In a matter of minutes or hours, it was over. She closed her eyes, feeling a strange kind of   
peace sweeping through her despite the blood. It was dark now, but that was all right.   
  
It was always dark in the beginning.   
~~~   
End, 4. 


	5. V

AN: Some people are just incorrigibly demented, and I happen to be one of them. The   
continuity is probably messed up. The facts are probably screwed up. The names have been   
changed to protect my right to misspell. Just read it. I apologize in advance.   
  
~~~   
"Warped," part five   
~~~   
  
  
Why did a sorceress need a knight?   
  
The pain Selphie was feeling seemed to abate when she allowed her mind to wander. She   
remembered, of course, what Seifer had said about sorceresses as he'd swayed under his   
'romantic' dream.   
  
*She needs my protection*, he had said.   
  
But they had defeated Seifer so easily, while the sorceress had impaled Squall, dodged   
bullets, and stopped them in their tracks at every turn.   
  
And it was clear to Selphie then, that sorceresses didn't need anyone to protect them, no   
matter what their knights had convinced themselves of. What then?   
  
She felt the air around her grow lighter…perhaps she was waking up?   
  
There was a reason, and she thought of Seifer, rooted on the moving float, all bravado   
and uncertainty, all of his valiance and solidity dreamed up and ridiculous under the   
fluorescent lights of the parade. Why did the sorceress tolerate…   
  
There was something about the green of his eyes, she thought, and space…   
  
How lonely it was in space, on that cold table, on dusty islands, while the green of his   
eyes, and the warmth of his hair and his skin…was not. How lonely it was to be a   
sorceress, and how spacious this body was for a teaspoon of light!   
  
She was surprised to find the numbness in her side dissipating as she woke, in the arms of   
someone warm, almost unable to tell where she ended and where he began.   
  
"Selphie?" His voice seemed to vibrate in her chest. It was warm and dusty, and she   
coughed less painfully, feeling the blood quiet, flowing somewhere far away.   
  
Why did a sorceress need a knight?   
  
"She misses…"   
  
"What?" Squall was holding an ungloved hand to her forehead, conducting something   
she suddenly recognized as precious through his skin.   
  
"She misses the missing part of herself," Selphie explained in a daze, "And you're the   
ones who have it, because…because you *are* it."   
  
"Selphie, what's happening to you? I don't get it. Did you figure out a way to get us out   
of here?"   
  
"Yes" was all she said before meeting his surprised mouth with her own.   
  
~~   
  
"What're you doing?" His voice sounded flimsy, his breath outweighing the words as if   
something had suddenly torn through what he had wanted to say. His eyes were nearly shut,   
but she could still see the blue struggling underneath, pushing up at the lids, trying to shake   
loose whatever had taken him over so quickly.  
  
She didn't answer him—she wanted to, but couldn't.   
  
Why did they always ask so many questions? She was the one who should be asking the   
questions. It was, after all, her body that they had stolen. She often wondered what they   
would say if she could ask them why.   
  
"You're my night," she told him instead, that enigmatic word creeping up from her throat   
again, growing out of her like a vine. Why had she chosen it, of all things, with all of the   
confusion it had caused? Night, day, earth, sky, light, dark…all it meant was that he was   
the other half; the half that she was missing.   
  
But they never, never understood, and they only heard what they wanted to. It didn't   
matter. Her fingers curled into him; worked under his layers like roots spreading   
through skin. He was already leaning weakly against her, spilling into her…   
  
"Selphie…"   
  
A breath arranged by the shape of his mouth. His lungs expanded with it, and for a moment   
she thought she could see through him, bones and all. Her eyes burned. There was nothing in   
him that was against her.   
  
So why had he done it?   
  
Gently and uncharacteristically, she stroked his face with the girl's short fingers, looking   
into the blue of his eyes and nodding at him carefully. She was Selphie—she remembered   
things—the garden committee festival, making SeeD, her attempt to play the flute, the   
wreckage of Trabia…   
  
And she knew, all the while, that Trabia hadn't been destroyed, and that she had never   
played the flute because she had never been to Fisherman's Horizon, and that there would   
have been nobody to play for anyway, because…  
  
Because…   
  
"Selphie?"   
  
She was confused until he looked up at her from the floor, eyes huge with confusion,   
perspiration still holding a few strands of hair to the corner of his mouth, and then she found   
herself forgetting again. The wound was still there, somewhere under the back of her neck,   
but she couldn't feel it when they were like this. And that was the idea, she knew.   
  
With a smile like a slit in her face, she traced a nail up the center of his stomach, finger   
catching at the pith of him, the long red line like an axis dividing him in her imagination.   
  
His skin trembled, understanding what she meant even if he didn't.   
  
Brave knights. Laughter bubbled up inside her throat like acid and he followed her hands   
with his eyes like ivy. Green and blue; yellow and brown—   
  
Let them think what they wanted.   
  
They had always managed it in the past, and yet…so had she. She knew now that this skin   
was an imitation. What she really wanted was coming…was approaching quickly, slowed only,   
as it always was, by the passage of time.  
  
His mouth opened as if to herald the moment, but all that came out was a shuddering breath.   
  
She would wait.   
  
~~   
  
Selphie began to roll lazily over, stopping only when she felt the grass and the sun. Her   
body ached hotly, the grass tickled her thighs and the warm skin-   
  
She opened her eyes in horror.   
  
Squall breathed on, naked in her arms, his eyes unnaturally bright and glazed over. A   
long red scratch stretched from his navel all the way up to the delicate, breathing lines of   
his throat. He lay back in the grass, his chin in the air as if to display the vulnerability,   
and for a moment she thought his throat had been cut…thought that she had cut…   
  
"Squall!" she called, shaking his face in a kind of panic that led her to forget important   
things.   
  
She remembered them when he moved, sliding against her intimately enough to assure   
her of what had happened if she'd had any doubt. She yanked away just as his eyes went   
huge; he looked down and then jumped under her.   
  
The grass whooshed around them with his movement, and a stifled exclamation later,   
they had scrambled apart. Selphie clutched her chest protectively, feeling the wound in   
her back again for the first time. Squall knelt in the thick grass, the heat of his blush   
almost palpable. It was moments before he had recovered himself enough to notice the   
dried blood.   
  
"W-what happened?" He glanced up at her through his hair, following the line with his   
fingers up under his chin where he couldn't see it. He took a few deep, deliberate breaths   
as if he meant to calm them both. Selphie didn't trust her voice.   
  
"I…" He looked at her desperately. No—that wasn't it. None of this was her. She   
hadn't…   
  
She saw a flash of peach between blades of green and remembered how his lips had   
parted when she…   
  
But *she* hadn't. It had been…   
  
"The sorceress…do you remember what Edea said about the sorceress?"   
  
He sunk down into the grass, nodding, brushing damp hair out of his eyes.   
  
"Before a sorceress can move on peacefully, she must pass her powers..." Selphie felt a   
chill run through her as the familiar words sounded, but it was on the next that her voice   
nearly died.   
  
"Rinoa…"   
  
Squall flinched visibly at that, crossing his arms over his bare shoulders defensively.   
  
"I got her powers, Squall. That's what this is," she said, turning her back to him, her fear   
finally outweighing her embarrassment, "And with no time… That's why it wouldn't   
heal."   
  
His eyes followed the wound torturously, breath pumped in and out of him mechanically   
as he touched her back and closed his eyes in shame.   
  
"The sorceress…she's missing something. That's why she always takes a knight." Her   
back throbbed as she spoke; his hand trembled against her skin, "Hyne, the wars, King   
Zelbaga; them tearing her up—that was all real. It's the reason we can do magic. It's the   
reason for the sorceresses. It's the reason she wanted to gather them all up and compress   
time, so she could be together again, and…The sorceresses are Hyne's pieces."   
  
All existence denied, she thought, *except one*. He sighed.   
  
"It's why she wanted to free Adel, isn't it?" Selphie nodded.   
  
"She couldn't get to Adel where she was, so she used Rinoa to get her powers. Not just from   
Edea but from Adel, too."   
  
His gaze turned outward then, beyond the grass.   
  
"Where are we?"   
  
The sun was shining hard through the clouds as if to get her attention too. They had   
slipped out of the time compression. That much was clear, but where were they? She   
noticed for the first time a familiar stone wall behind them.   
  
"Squall, is this the…"   
  
"Squall!" She recognized the voice immediately as Matron's. It was only the voice that   
came after it, close to her brain, that she couldn't place. It reverberated from behind her   
eyes, freezing her in her place.   
  
*I can't disappear yet.*   
  
I *won't* disappear yet.   
  
~~   
End, 5. 


	6. VI

AN: Some people are just incorrigibly demented, and I happen to be one of them. The   
continuity is probably messed up. The facts are probably screwed up. The names have been   
changed to protect my right to misspell. Just read it. I apologize in advance.  
  
~~~   
"Warped," part six   
~~~   
  
They slunk down in the grass simultaneously.   
  
"What the heck is Matron doing here?" Selphie hissed, turning to Squall.   
  
"Squall!" The voice was closer now, and Selphie could hear footsteps. She moved lower just in   
time to hear the grass rustle and catch a glimpse of a young boy's retreating back. The bright   
orange shirt jolted her memories, and she found her throat moving of its own accord.  
  
"Squall?"   
  
"It's me," the older Squall returned slowly, watching the figure, "This is…I don't think the time   
compression dropped us off in the right time."  
  
"We're at the orphanage. Why would it drop us off here? It doesn't make any sense."  
  
"Squall!" Edea was practically on top of them now. Selphie realized that they would have to   
move quickly or face discovery.   
  
"Let's get out of here," she murmured, rolling toward him, but it wasn't to be. In a moment,   
Edea was standing over them with wide eyes, her pursuit of the younger Squall forgotten.   
  
"Matron, it's not what it looks like!" Selphie sat up abruptly. Squall sat behind her silently, his   
blush speaking for him well enough.  
  
Edea's look of surprise renewed itself.  
  
"Matron?" she repeated, puzzled, and then tilted her head slowly at Selphie and then Squall.   
The realization was quick on her face. "You two…you shouldn't be here," she warned them   
abruptly, "this isn't your time."  
  
"We didn't ask to come, Matron. We got…dropped off somehow…we were stuck in a…time   
compression, and then…" Selphie broke off when she heard the long, heavy footsteps   
approaching them.   
  
The sight of the extended figure, sharp-helmeted and gleaming in the sun, shocked Selphie   
awake.  
  
"Matron, behind you!" Selphie stood up along with Squall, forgetting her nakedness—  
forgetting everything as she held out her fists in remembered pain.   
  
Matron turned without fear to face the monster behind her. The steps were like slow weight   
being dragged along the ground. Like some ancient rock, the painted face was creased with   
age and pain.   
  
She was dying.  
  
"You," Ultimecia said slowly, voice slow like the grinding of time. It was not an accusation, but   
a recognition, as if the sorceress had suddenly found herself in a mirror and learned her own   
name.   
  
She moved toward Selphie on invisible wings, Edea stringing behind her until they had both   
arrived at the same spot in the grass.  
  
"Selphie!" Squall shouted. She turned her head to look at him, the dull brown line moving over   
his throat like a lines on a map. He didn't move from where he was standing, and she knew   
then, suddenly, that he couldn't.   
  
The three women faced each other, and Selphie felt the back of her neck prickle as she finally   
gazed into the hollow rings of Ultimecia's eyes. Then everything dissolved.  
  
  
~~  
  
They were dancing. In one warm instant, a woman's dress sparkled and a burst of tiny flames   
froze in the air, burning like eyes above the glass roof. Below, dancers reached the highest   
point of an arc just before the moment that they would stop and look up at the sky with open   
mouths to admire it.   
  
A painted paper sign flexed above them, arching over the crowd: "Congratulations SeeD   
Graduates!"   
  
They were in different places in the room, mid step, mid dance, mid sip, mid word. Some of   
them were behind others, some of them had their backs turned, and some of them were in the   
arms of others. During those times, it was difficult to tell them apart. The gold trim of their   
uniforms glinted in the light, turning them into one continuous figure. They were talking of   
something.  
  
They were laughing and talking of the tiny burning eyes above the glass ceiling that hesitated   
now, suspended just below the stars.   
  
Fireworks? She could detect no sound; not the sound of the burst, not the sound of the voices.   
Rinoa's foot made no sound either, paused above the third step of the staircase at the   
entrance, alternately glimmering and melting, alternately becoming opaque and fading away.   
Her face was indistinguishable. Was that a knife in her hand?  
  
She could not tell, because it changed even as it stood still, like the turning of the light on that   
one sparkle in the woman's dress.   
  
It didn't matter.  
  
She looked at them all and smiled. They were like the snow in Trabia, each flake frozen in the   
air, mid-swirl, like dancing. Selphie kissed Squall on the balcony until Rinoa held up her finger.   
Then Selphie was gone, and it was only Squall and Rinoa looking up at the sky. Seifer stood in   
the corner wearing his uniform until he disappeared into the wall. Miles away Trabia stood in   
its own ruins, and faded figures who should have been dead walked and spoke to each other   
in the destroyed garden.   
  
She looked at them all and smiled as she receded, watching them fade as she climbed high up   
into the air, past the roof, past the fireworks, and, eventually, even past the stars until they   
were nothing but a point in her vision.   
  
She wondered then if they moved again below the glass roof, below the fireworks, below the   
stars, but from that great distance, it was impossible to tell. The point in her vision burned   
and glimmered enticingly like the sparkle of a dress as if to draw her in again, but she knew   
better and covered her eye up quickly. Then all was darkness.  
  
~~  
END. 


End file.
